People make their city better

NEW DELHI: Ordinary people are taking over from the government and making Delhi a better place to live in. On World Environment Day here are some of their stories.
Govindpuri, a resettlement colony in south Delhi had a really big garbage problem which the municipal authorities could not fix. The residents, with help from NGOs, put an act together which segregates waste, turns the biodegradeable stuff into compost and allows ragpickers to carry away the rest.
It was really quite as simple and the people of Govindpuri can’t stop talking about their success.
Vasant Vihar: It was much the same at Vasant Vihar. People have money here and they are used to getting the municipal authorities to do things. But neither clout nor money could put drain water to use. The residents had to think it through themselves and now about 200 litres a day is used for keeping the parks in A Block green.
Vasant Vihar has little underground water."We could not afford to waste potable water which we receive from the ground water reservoir," says Deepa Kapur, president of the Vasant Vihar Residents’ Welfare Association.
Connaught Place: Traders at Connaught Place found that business was getting hit by the grabage that spilled out of bins. Ragpickers would rifle through the bins and because they did not have a stake in keeping the area clean, they would leave garbage scattered around. Last year, the traders, along with the NDMC, teamed up with an NGO, Chintan, to train rag-pickers about garbage segregation and management.
A new garbage station in D-Block was constructed. Rag-pickers were organised into a group and given employee identity cards. They were provided with gloves and a uniform. The rag-pickers also got a place to segregate garbage. The clutter and stink vanished. Panchshila Park: Retired engineers and town-planners in the colony brain- stormed to formulate a rain harvesting plan. "Our own residents designed a project in which recharge pits were constructed near the drain pipes. We hope to harvest 173.62 lakh litres of water every year,"says Krishna Saigal, president of the Panchshila Cooperative House Building Society Ltd.